Last week I told you a little about me using interviews I’ve given over the last few years. This week I’ll share a little about my writing, using those same interviews.
When or why did you decide writing was the career for you?
I’m not sure I’d describe it as a career since I’m retired full-time and only write part-time. It’s been nine years and I’ve taken time off several times. I keep coming back thanks to readers who encourage me to continue.
When and why did you begin writing? When did you first consider yourself an author?
It’s hard to remember when I wasn’t writing. When I was in fourth grade, I had a toy typewriter and I’d type of copies of a little neighborhood newspaper and sell it for ten cents.
Throughout my career in IT, I was involved with non-fiction writing. Then in 1996, I was invited to become a web content writer for one of the early portal compilation sites. For the next several years I wrote content for them and several other sites plus some print articles for various outlets.
In 2003, before my late husband’s cancer diagnosis, I was semi-retired and decided to dabble in some short stories for womans magazines. I never got any submitted due to his illness. Everything went on the back burner.
In 2012, I started to participate in writing flash fiction online. My attempts were met with encouragement and I even won a second place prize. I took part in the 2012 April A to Z Blog Challenge, writing a flash fiction story for each letter. I eventually compiled them all into a book and self-published it. That encouraged me to dig out a short story I had written in 2003 and publish it as well, Lost and Found.
I think I seriously considered myself an author when I successfully completed both a Camp NaNoWriMo and a NaNoWriMo in 2012. They resulted in my first two books, Home Again (a follow-up to the short story Lost and Found) and Not a Whisper, my first Klondike PA mystery book.
Do you base your characters on real people?
“All characters appearing in this work are fictitious.
Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.”
Um, yup. That’s right. Okay. You see… [pause] I admit to using people I know as the base for some characters. The good thing is they know it and like it. It turns out I’m a visual person and I need photos of my characters (and locations) to help me write.
Do you have a specific writing style? Is there anything about your style or genre that you find particularly challenging?
I write very conversationally and I love writing dialogue. Characters are at the top of my stories, whether mystery or romance. I have found I love writing “whodunit” style mysteries rather than romances. I have a trilogy of romance stories sitting and collecting dust.
My mysteries aren’t graphic, are on the police procedural side and any romance stops at the bedroom door. (UPDATE: Now I write cozy mysteries that appeal to both men and women.)
How much of the book is realistic and are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
I draw heavily on my experiences and the people I’ve met. In fact, one character in my Klondike Mystery series was a driving force in my writing the first book. She never lived to read it, sadly.
What has surprised you the most since you started writing and publishing your books?
I have to admit I wasn’t prepared for the love shown to the elderly twin sisters in my C’Mon Inn Mystery series. People seem to love them and keep wanting more. That was what drove me to write their story in the prequel to the series, Paradise Dawn.
Thank you.
How interesting, Donna. I wrote a newspaper when I was a child too but it was just to give to my sister who went away on vacation. I still have them and that was maybe 50 years ago! I’ll have to look for your books, they sound very interesting. I like the C’Mon On Inn mystery title.